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Saturday, October 6, 2007

Captive Butterflies

The greenhouse, which has been neglected over the summer because it isn't needed in all this heat, had three butterflies fluttering against the inside walls today. Once they fly right in the door, they rise above that level and never think to swoop down low again. I use a shallow wire basket as a net to capture them. One Gulf frit required a little help because he was caught under a piece of the framework that holds the glazing. He latched on to the finger I offered and stayed put until I reached the doorway to wide open spaces. There was a beautiful buckeye and another gulf frit. The gulf frits are frantically nectaring on tithonia and zinnias before cold comes.

1 comment:

What a nice story--glad you saved the critters. I was once in a greenhouse when a bird became trapped in the same way the butterflies were trapped in yours. But once all the humans were gone, the little guy managed to find his way out. But then I put spiders outside rather than squash them as my grandmother would have done. I always think that one of them might just be Spider Woman, spinning out the universe from her own body. I wouldn't want to be responsible for interfering with the creative spirit.

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Eleventh Commandment

“Thou shalt inherit the holy earth as a faithful steward, conserving its resources and productivity from generation to

generation. Thou shalt safeguard thy fields from soil erosion,

thy living waters from drying up, thy forests from desolation, and protect thy hills from overgrazing by thy herds, that thy descendants may have abundance forever. If any shall fail in

this stewardship of the land thy fruitful fields shall become sterile stony ground and wasting gullies, and thy descendants shall decrease and live in poverty or perish from off the face of the earth” (Lowdermilk, 1942).